Leadership Proverbs and Models of Change

The Leadership Wisdom of Solomon: 28 Essential Strategies for Leading with Integrity
Pat Williams with Jim Denney
Cincinnati: Standard Publishing, 2010

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip Heath and Dan Heath
New York: Crown Business, 2010

Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology (Two People, One Year, Zero Watts)
Eric Brende
New York: Harper Perennial, 2004

Of the writing of leadership books there is no end. So much of what you read in one seems to be copied from others of them. In Pat Williams”s The Leadership Wisdom of Solomon, though, what impresses is not that there is anything new here, but that he quotes from or alludes to so many other sources.

The author”s credentials for addressing this subject are impressive. He has devoted his life to professional sports, not on the playing field or floor, but in the head office. He is cofounder of the Orlando Magic, radio personality, motivational speaker, and author of dozens of books.

My impression of this one? After a lifetime of reading about leadership, I picked up this volume with a yawn. But before long I woke up. If I were still preaching regularly, I”d want this one on my shelf for the illustrations alone. I like telling Vince Lombardi stories, and tales about Winston Churchill and Gerald Ford and Lee Iacocca and John Wooden and Pat Summitt and (negatively) Ken Lay and Jim Jones.

Williams has obviously read very widely and retained a lot of it. As he explains, “I read 3 or 4 books a week, between 150 and 200 books a year. My favorite subjects are the Bible, American history (especially the Civil War), the lives of great leaders, biographies of sports heroes, and principles of management and business leadership.”

Solomon is not really the subject of this study; he”s the excuse. Although each chapter rests on a verse from Proverbs or Ecclesiastes (from Eugene Peterson”s paraphrase The Message), it rests very lightly. You won”t find much biblical exegesis here, but you will appreciate the practical applications.

This is not a book for reading straight through. Try a chapter a day, savoring one of Solomon”s/Williams”s nuggets at a time. This is, in fact, how Williams reads. “As soon as I spot a profound idea, a fascinating story, or some useful information, I slow down. I savor, I highlight and scribble notes in the margins.”

There”s a lot to savor here.

 

Make the Change

A megachurch pastor friend recommended Chip and Dan Heath”s Switch. He succeeded to the senior pastor”s role after having served several years as an associate. Following a successful older pastor is never an easy assignment. A congregation grows older with their leader; they also grow comfortable together, doing what they”ve always done, too much “at ease in Zion,” as the prophet Amos would grumble.

Now along comes the younger man, one whom they loved in his supportive role but are not quite so sure he”s up to being in charge now. His perspective is different. Things are changing. Too much. Too soon. Too discomfiting.

To my friend”s credit, though, his people are being patient with him. He has slightly unnerved, but not alienated, them. He moves tactfully, gracefully, as he encourages his congregation to adapt to changing times””while still being faithful to the church”s calling and mission. Because they know he loves them, they are giving him a fair chance to succeed.

I understand why he recommended Switch. It”s full of practical, doable advice. The authors know that most decisions””either to welcome change or resist it””are based on emotion, not reason. The astute leader, then, works with rather than against those emotions, building for the long haul, step by painstaking step, rather than for immediate gratification.

The book is built around three extended metaphors, all three essentials in fostering change.

First there is the Rider, people”s rational side, the side that thinks it is making the decisions, calling the shots, ready with a reasonable explanation for the thinker”s positions.

More powerful than the Rider””and the real dynamic to be reckoned with””is the Elephant he”s riding. This is a person”s emotional, instinctive side, where the real force either for change or against it exists.

The third is the Path, the surrounding environment through which a clear destination must be adopted and aimed for if any change is to occur.

The challenge for a leader is to direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant, and define the Path. All three are necessary””and attainable””if positive change is to occur.

 

Flip the Switch

If you are feeling a little nostalgic for an earlier, simpler lifestyle, yearning to be liberated from the tyranny of mechanization and electrification, spend some time with Eric Brende in his Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology. By the time I had finished reading this seductive chronicle of his family”s 18-month experiment in Amish-like living, complete with horse and buggy and engineless sowing and threshing and home-grown vittles, I was ready to sell out and move to the country.

But I”d take along my computer. And air conditioner. And central heating. And access to an airport. And, and, and, and.

OK, so I”m not quite ready for Brende”s radical formula for basic living. But this Yale- and MIT-educated intellectual and his adventurous wife””who are not opposed to technology, by the way, but only to being its slave, quite a different thing””practice what they preach, whether in the country or in the heart of urban St. Louis. They prove it is possible to live richly on a subsistence income. They really do take time to smell the roses.

Wanting to conduct an experiment in simple living, the Brendes moved to Amish country. There they discovered that the Amish aren”t all Amish. “What I had taken to be a homogenous Amish collective was actually an aggregation of Amish, Mennonites, and mainstream Americans from all corners of the country, bearing a variety of religious viewpoints, joined by one converging aim: to reclaim their lives from machines.” He began calling them Minimites, honoring Mennonite nonconformity “and their current predilection to gain a maximum of ends with a minimum of technological means.”

The Brendes” experiment convinced them that “the main three ingredients of technological liberation are a pinch of muscle, a sprinkle of wits, and a dash of willingness.” It takes all three to abandon, as they did, cell phone, television set, family car, running water, refrigeration, and just about everything else we have taught ourselves to consider essential to the good life. What they found in their place were relationships, mutual helpfulness, peace of mind, and strengthened values.

Not a bad recipe for living.

Where”s the switch?

 

LeRoy Lawson is international consultant with CMF International and professor of Christian ministries at Emmanuel Christian Seminary in Johnson City, Tennessee. He also serves as a CHRISTIAN STANDARD contributing editor and member of Standard Publishing”s Publishing Committee.